What budget cuts mean to you
And what you can do to stop them
We're projecting that state budget cuts will cause local school districts to eliminate between 2,100 and 3,800 positions next school year, including 1,400 to 2,500 classroom-teaching jobs. These cuts come on top of more than 2,200 positions eliminated this year, including 1,400 teaching jobs.
That's a significant economic blow, particularly in rural communities where public schools are often the largest employers. When the purchasing power of 50,000 teachers is diminished in a small state like ours, the ripple effects are considerable.
Teachers who remain employed will likely see salary freezes or pay cuts. Local districts anticipate between 64,000 and 78,000 classroom teacher furlough days, which would mean lost wages of between $17 million and $20 million for teachers alone.
Under the current budget scenario, our schools are facing an $800 million cut in two years - 25 percent less money than we had at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. The state's Base Student Cost, the fundamental building block of local school district budgets, could drop to levels not seen since 1995.
Local school districts have tried to protect classroom teachers' jobs, but now South Carolina is at the 11th hour, and next year is midnight. If the General Assembly doesn't find the courage to address our dysfunctional taxation and school funding systems, they will be responsible for nothing less than political malpractice.
Contact your Senators and House members. Let them know that you want comprehensive tax and funding reform.
Ask them to:
- Raise our lowest in the nation cigarette tax should be raised to the national average;
- Overhaul our state's $2 billion in tax exemptions, including a sales tax system that taxes a five-year-old Ford at the same rate as a new Lear jet. This needs to be examined and overhauled.
